“My Only Desire Is To Find A Home In The World I Influenced”

The following year it looked as if Blow’s luck was finally turning after years of a turbulent childhood and a disappointing few years. She was offered the job of Fashion Director at The Sunday Times Style Magazine and signed a six-year consultant contract with Swarovski crystals. For her upcoming fortieth birthday, she opened a modern art gallery in London’s East End so that her husband could leave his job and follow his dreams. Disappointingly, the gallery did not succeed as the couple had hoped and Blows severe manic depression was becoming increasingly more noticeable. In the same year she was sacked from The Sunday Times due to complaints she was producing shoots of totally unwearable clothes and as her depression took over her body she became increasingly more difficult to live with. This disastrous month for Isabella also brought some other fatal news, her husband’s estate, which she had grown incredibly attached to, was repossessed by Detmar’s mother and given to his sister, despite all the work Isabella had put into refurnishing the mansion. It was at this point in Blow’s life which was described as “the beginning of the end for Isabella” as she would become increasingly extravagant, it was becoming more and more obvious she was using her exhibitionist behaviour to conceal the deeper problems in her life.

By spring 2007, after several stints in different psychiatry hospitals it seemed as though it would only be a matter of time until Isabella succeeded in killing herself. One of her first attempts was by taking an overdose, while one of her most horrific attempts was later that year. Resulting in her ankles being smashed after jumping from the elevated section of the A4 at Ealing. Her friends and companions all attempted to try to help her but nothing seemed to work. When Detmar Blow later discovered his wife’s letters she had written earlier on in that fateful day, she made precise bequests addressed to godchildren, her two sisters, Philip, her husband and other close friends. There was no mention of McQueen among any of her letters.

Isabella Blow appears to be the perfect example of what it means to be sucked in, torn up, and spat back out of an industry, of which she famously helped shape in her turbulent and eccentric life.

    



“A Blow Up Doll With Brains”

It was always said that discovering Sophie Dahl should have been the re-making of Isabella Blow, but her betrayal by Alexander McQueen led her to her fatal downfall. Dahl was discovered weeks after Blow was infamously betrayed ultimately by McQueen for a contract with Gucci. Sophie isn’t the typical supermodel. At a size fourteen, Blow describes her as a “great big blow up doll with enormous bosoms”, her presence in the model industry had challenged society’s perspective on the need for skinny, skeletal models. After discovering Dahl outside a restaurant after a row with her mother over her future, and eighteen year old Dahl fall upon Isabella Blow as she climbed out of a taxi. This brief and fateful meeting immediately started Dahl’s career as one of the industries most influential models, since she first appeared in Isabella’s next shoot for Italian Vogue. Dahl has now modelled for a broad range of high end designers, from Yves Saint-Laurent to Versace and has appeared in many large circulation magazines.



“I Did My Usual Thing Waved My Magic Wand”

In 1996 it appeared Blow was at her peak in the industry. She had just fallen upon her third protégé at the Royal College of Art, Julien Macdonald. Isabella was invited to the Royal College’s annual graduate show where, much like in previous years relating to McQueen she spied something special in Macdonald’s knitwear designs. She later took him under her ever growing wing, appointing him to Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel to design knitwear and at Alexander McQueen as a freelance artist. Macdonald was later appointed as McQueen’s successor at the Paris Haute Couture house of Givenchy and was later named British Fashion Designer of the Year in 2001. Julien is a very controversial artist, his extensive use of fur, including one memorable incident in which he was flour-bombed. He further stated his label would collapse if he did not use it as the fur provides the majority of his revenue, he later released a controversial statement declaring “people who don’t like fur can piss off, I love fur, it is a beautiful natural product from animals”. Macdonald was later accused of making British Airways flight attendant uniforms appear as “sex objects” rather than glamorous when Isabella contracted an agreement between the designer and the airline. His designs merely encourage a confident, seductive, high class woman and when criticised for his work he appears unaffected by the assumptions.

The image above shows Blow at one of Macdonalds catwalk shows.

“He is a Wild Bird, and I Think he Makes Clothes Fly”

Isabella Blow and Lee McQueen’s relationship was undoubtedly the most colossal yet tragic combinations between two professionals the fashion industry had ever seen. Their understated unique understanding of each other created an energy on another level which ultimately amounted to Blow’s downfall. At McQueen’s Graduate show at Central Saint Martins, London, Isabella was seated on one of the lower steps, struggling to find a seat. She immediately devoured over his MA collection describing it as “the most beautiful thing I had ever seen”. It was a collection epitomising  “savatage and tradition” what the nineties represented. Following his graduation, Blow took off where the College left and purchased his entire MA collection for £5,000, paying it off in weekly instalments of £100. She desired his talent so badly as to her it brought something “modern and special” to the repetitive fashion cycle at that time, a step that would challenge her career for ever.

Lee McQueen was the son of a taxi driver, raised in east London he was one of the industry’s wildest anarchists. He announced from an early age he wanted to be a designer and left school with only one O-level in Art. His friends often described his younger mindset and style as “Donatella Versace goes skateboarding” an unusual juxtaposition of words which represented his homemade designs. He later went on to work in an apprenticeship at a Saville Row tailor, Anderson and Sheppard, which allowed him to gain the skills and knowledge which epitomises his precisely cut British bespoke tailoring throughout his label. While at his apprenticeship it was rumoured he drew on the canvas of Prince Charles’ jacket, however the small sketch was never found. McQueen later went on to apply for a job as a pattern cutter at Central Saint Martins but was declined the opportunity as he would have been be the same age as his students. He returned the following day with samples of his work and was immediately offered a place at the prestigious college.

When Blow took Lee on as her second protégé she encouraged him to produce controversial, eccentric collections that would produce an uproar among the press. His Autumn/Winter collection, named ‘Highland Rape’ epitomises Blow’s words of shock tactics, as McQueen sent distressed, violently angry models down the catwalk. Dressed in torn and dishevelled fabrics, this collection delved deep into McQueen’s soul, showcasing his sister’s violent and brutalised youth. Blows words of wisdom ultimately produced great things for the designer, staging the majority of his catwalk collections in dimly lit warehouses, a far ride away from the glamorous fashion week tents in central London. This captured the sharp words of the press but as Isabella advised, gave him publicity, despite being controversial or not. Blow and McQueen’s flair for showmanship combined with the outrageous bespoke designs led the label to a twice-yearly spectacle, when Isabella declared the labels name would be changed to ‘Alexander McQueen’ due to her pet name ‘Alexander The Great’ for him. Ultimately Isabella was the best thing that could ever have happened to Lee McQueen, disappointingly leading him after years of friendship with Blow to sell fifty-one percent their jointly treasured brand to the Gucci group in 2001. A hard hitting deal that brought Blow into despair when Lee disregarded her as he transferred to Paris. This sent Blows traumatic and turbulent private life into the foreground when her manic depression began to peak. A few months over a year after Blow’s suicide, McQueen hung himself in the wardrobe of his Mayfair home a few days short of fashion week. This extra-ordinary collaboration is for me clearly represented in one of McQueen’s most memorable quotes, “fly that close to the sun, you’ll burn the wings and melt the wax”.



After Isabella's death McQueen and Treacy, two of the most treasured people in Blow's life collaborated in Spring/Summer 2008 to produce McQueens catwalk collection dedicated to Isabella's life.

“An Affair With No Sex”

Blows infamous role in British fashion society was difficult to place, she darted from unofficial roles in Vogue and Talter writing the odd article and headhunting for their latest issue. Her eye for talent was remarkably understated, especially when she first discovered Philip Traecy in 1989. Blow first fell upon Traecy when he turned up at Talter carrying a green crocodile hat. Isabella instantly leaped at the opportunity to mentor her new discovery by asking him to design her wedding hat, to Detmar Blow. Treacy created a stunning gold laced headdress over a flesh coloured wimple. It created a dark, medieval aspect in comparison to her purple velvet dress hand embroidered in necklaces. Blow later asked Treacy from her honeymoon to “come and live in my house and make hats”. It appeared Blow led a fairytale lifestyle, inviting her distressed protégés to come and stay in her enchanted castle where she would wave her magic wand making them into icons in the fashion industry overnight. Treacy’s work clearly has a prominent role in the fashion industry, with a variety of blue bloods falling at his feet to design a head piece for their latest function, he also, often crosses the boundaries into ‘visual-art’. He describes millinery as an ‘intricate craft’, inspired by his favourite artist, Picasso, and his ‘bric-a-brac’ structures. This inspirational distinction is clearly shown their is eccentric and unusual designs and their structures. After studying at the Royal College of Art, Treacy was mainly influenced by his vivid imagination, surrealism, religious and historic imagery. His specific milliner’s process begins by forming erratic structures using “un-boring” fabrics such as feathers and fringed edging. He places a strong influence on the precise execution and tailoring of his products, creating lines and structures above the head to form an “extra accessory” that ultimately over powers the outfit. Isabella Blow constantly exhibited Treacy’s pieces for a reason more than its whimsical appearance, but to hide her vulnerability behind the veil of her appearance of ‘effortless wealth’.

When asked why she wore Treacy's designs she describes his studio like a plastic surgeons office, if she had a bad day she would go to see Phillip for a creation to hide her face, Blow also later admitted his extravagant designs were to prevent people she’s did not love from kissing her.



“Get off me you silly Shri Lanki”

Blow married her first husband, Nicholas Taylor in 1981, and then later remarried Detmar Blow at Gloucester Cathedral in 1989, with Isabella’s headgear made by Phillip Traecy. Their relationship appeared extremely extraordinary to the outside world. For Detmar, it was love at first sight. He virtually stalked her before eventually inviting her out for dinner. According to Detmar she arrived in a Pam Hogg look, a style incredibly feared by the fashion apprehensive. When Blow went upstairs to make a call, he pounced on her to make it precisely clear where his interests lay. He recalls it as “very nice, it was more than sex”. A short sixteen days later they were engaged. Their relationship seemed to appear like a whirlwind romance, they were both tied together through their family’s tragic histories, Detmar’s father also killed himself using weed killer. However far-fetched from the traditional Disney plots, there was never a quiet or subdued moment, despite their infamous break-up for a mere twelve months in 2004, to allow Detmar to father children due to Isabella’s infertility- one of the main causes of her neurotic depression. Isabella reportedly had an eccentric liaison with a gondolier in Venice while Detmar went on to have an affair with Stephanie Theobald, the society editor of British Harpers Bazaar.

During this brief separation Isabella was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and began undergoing electric shock therapy, for a while the treatment appeared to be helpful when until briefly after their reconciliation she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

 The couple took the Blow’s fantasy arts and crafts family home, Hiller in Gloucester. Despite their lack of money, they both shared a wild craving for glamour and threw their family home open to aristocrats such as Princess Michael of Kent and the fashion elite such as Mario Testino. However, behind this false shared appearance Isabella was once again deeply disturbed by inability to have children. After the couple tried eight times with IVF, Isabella, tortured, checked herself in to the Priori Clinic, London. She describes this experience as her and her husband being “like a pair of exotic fruits who could not breed when placed together”. Perhaps this concludes her eccentric relationship with her unplugged romance as even after their reconciliation, Isabella still held an unearthed feeling of deep pessimism about her illnesses.

 



Blow had survived in London through doing a variety of odd jobs, an example being cleaning, in which she threw herself into the part with her typical character by sporting a handkerchief, knotted in its four corners on her head. She later moved to New York to take a course on Chinese art but eventually realised where her directions lay when she was ultimately drawn to fashion. Through her close friend Brian Ferry she blagged herself a job at American Vogue working for the infamously valiant Anna Wintour. It was here where she met artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol and married her first husband, Taylor. When she later returned to London in the eighties her exotic and extraordinary background made her the idol of the most fashion forward trendsetters. Blow stinted in several high class fashion establishments in the late eighties to nineties from Vogue, to Tatler to The Sunday Times Style Magazine. Blow later returned to Tatler as Fashion Editor in an attempt to “raise their game” with Isabella as their new global talent.

Shaken By The Hand

Born into an aristocratic heritage in 1958 Blow was the eldest child of Major Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton, a military officer and to his second wife Helen Mary Shore, a barrister. She was the grand daughter of Sir Jock Delves Broughton who had been trailed for the murder of Earl of Errol in Kenya, famously represented in the film ‘White Mischief’ in 1988. This murder was allegedly due to his beautiful and much younger wife having an affair with Errol while Delves Broughton fled to Kenya in his forties due to a gambling addiction. 

 Her ancestors had a strong connection with the Crown and Army, with her family acquiring Doddington Hall, Cheshire, providing Blow with great despair when her father only bequeathed her £5,000 and denied her his million pound estate. Blow had two sisters, Lavinia and Julia and a brother John, who when Blow was four, drowned at two years old in the family swimming pool. This terrifying experience changed the family dynamics within the household as Blows parents lost their only son. When questioned about her brother’s horrific death at such an early age Blow recalls her mothers extraordinary howl as they stretched the young boy out on the lawn. “My mother went upstairs to put her lipstick on, that might have something to do with my obsession with lipstick”. Few years later at the tender age of fourteen Blows parents separated and her mother left the household shaking each daughter by the hand. As the enormity of her brothers tragic death sank in the two daughters were packed off to boarding school by her father, the rather unpaternal man who she never got on with. The only member of Isabella’s rather disturbed family, whom she vaguely got on with, was her eccentric grandmother, who was an explorer, famous for eating human flesh in Papua New Guinea, Isabella called her ‘the cannibal’.

Isabella Blow recalls her fondest memory being of her mother, trying on her pink hat, a prominent recollection that she later explained directed her into the fashion industry. Yet she failed to realise this direction would haunt her with decades of incessive depression in later years.

Many people analysed Blows tragic depression as the repercussions of her tragic childhood experiences a significant example is that of her grandfather’s morphine overdose in a hotel which caused the family a severe loss of money. This lack of inheritance haunted her due to her addictive nature that craved glamour. 



A small animation I created using Adobe Flash displaying some of Isabella Blow's most treasured quotes.

3rd Time Lucky

It is a well known fact that the late Isabella Blow’s life was one of exception. She glided from extremes of inspiration to tragedy which ultimately brought her to her downfall as one of the fashion industry’s most predominant mentors and muses of her era. The phrase ‘third time lucky’ is often used in a more favourable fitting but this is a phrase I only feel appropriate for such a death at the hands of such great depression. On 7th May 2007 the English editor, muse, creator, mentor and icon succeeded in attempting to take her own life for the third time by drinking the weed killer Paraquat. During a weekend house party in her husband’s estate, Hilles, The Cotswolds, which included guests such as Philip Treacy and his partner, Blow announced she was going shopping into the nearby village. Several hours later she was discovered collapsed on the bathroom floor by her sister, Lavinia, and was immediately hospitalised. Blow later admitted she had drunk the weed killer the following day prior to her death at the premature age of 48.

Blow had suffered years of serious depression caused by a range of factors from her diagnosis of ovarian cancer, her infertility which provoked a one year split with her husband, Detmar Blow, during which Isabella had a notorious affair with a gondolier she met in Venice. Blow also famously agonised over her inability to “find a home in a world she influenced” provoked by her slow disregard from McQueen. As Blow began to fall by the way side once the deals for her protégé’s began to rush through, the growth of her unbearable depression began to strengthen.